Welcome Rapid fans to the new season! Sunday afternoon saw Rapid make the trip to take on Burgenland minnows Heiligenkreuz in the first round of the ÖFB Cup. The weather was friendly and welcoming, as were the hosts who failed to register a shot during the game. It took a little while before the first goal of the afternoon arrived, but the difference in class was evident from kick off and Rapid (kitted out in the new away strip) enjoyed a gentle afternoon's work out. Peter Schöttel went with the lineup he had been using during the pre-season matches: Christopher Trimmel on the right, but playing in the deeper right back role. Otherwise there was little to report, other than that out of the new arrivals only the returning Ildiz would make an appearance as a sub later in the afternoon. Despite the noisy travelling Rapid support it took a little while to manufacture the first goal of the game. It eventually arrived in the shape of a 33rd minute Steffen Hofmann penalty, following a handball from a corner. Markus Katzer laid on a precise 39th minute cross for Guido Burgstaller who could have made it 2:0 but the striker failed to get his effort on target. Rapid managed to find their shooting boots during the half time team talk and quickly put the game to bed in the second half: firstly Lukas Grozurek beat his man and fired home to more or less kill the game as a contest in the 52nd minute, before Burgstaller added a third seven minutes later after getting on the end of a Trimmel ball. The fourth wasn't long in arriving as in the 71st minute Burgstaller netted again to start adding a little bit of gloss to the score line. The scoring was complete two minutes later when Grozurek rounded the goalie and slotted home for his second of the afternoon. The score could have been higher, Mario Sonnleitner put an 88th minute close range header wide, but a five goal return was a satisfactory result for the Hütteldorfers. Guido Burgstaller explained that the team was "obviously happy" to have hit five, and that "after making life difficult in the first half, we hit our stride in the second". Grozurek, who himself had bagged a brace, added: "we managed to use our chances and played well, objective achieved!"(gw)
23.07.2012